They are sites — often more like communities, really — where independent authors can gather, learn, commiserate, and grow. They provide opportunities to showcase books, ask questions, offer opinions, or share helpful content.

Check out these indie author sites

There are far more than these, of course, but these four have caught my attention.

Alliance of Independent Authors

Because this is a membership organization, some of its most valuable features — including meetups and online forums — are closed to nonmembers, but membership is affordable (and worth it). Nonmembers have access to the organization’s blog and its excellent content.

Association of Independent Authors

This is also a membership organization, but one any serious independent author needs to join. With robust forums, links to top resources, even a “how to self-publish” manual, the AiA helps indies learn, grow, and flourish.

Indie Reader

Describing itself as “the essential guide to self-published books and the people who write them,” Indie Reader offers authors industry-related content, the IR Discovery Awards, advertising opportunities, and paid honest reviews. There are no guarantees that you’ll like your paid review, but you can be certain the reviewer will submit it to Amazon.com.

Indies Unlimited

Clearly, any website with “Comment Policy” as a toolbar option enjoys lots of discussion. Authors can participate and contribute on the site in a number of ways, making this a solid online home for indie authors and the readers who love them.

What’s your favorite indie author site?

I’d really appreciate hearing what you think of these sites and getting recommendations from you for others you think do a great job of helping independent authors. What sites or resources that have a sense of community would you add to the list?

What’s your favorite site for indie authors? Please comment.

The Alliance award is given to websites and blogs that the organizations members have nominated as outstanding.

Founder Orna Ross said in an e-mail that “With so much (mis)information flying around the Web, we wanted to create a benchmark that would signify excellence, integrity, creativity and helpfulness in the indie and self-publishing world.”

Alliance recognizes 12 sites

Here’s a complete list of sites receiving the honor this year — you can see that this resource is in good company:

1. Sandra Beckwith, Build Book Buzz
2. Ben Galley
3. Aggie Villaneuva
4. Susanne Lakin
5. Mark Coker
6. Self Publishing Review
7. Dan Poynter
8. BooksJustBooks.com
9. Joan Stewart
10. Pixel of Ink
11. Book Bub
12. Jon Reed

My sincere and humble thanks go to those Alliance members who nominated this site. I work hard to provide content that is useful, relevant, and timely, and this honor suggests that I’m on the right track.

Has your website or book received an award or honor recently? Share the news by commenting here!